Always With You - A Best Friends To Lovers Novel

Chapter Eighteen

Chapter Eighteen

Bowie

It wasn't fair ignoring him all day after he told me his little secret. It wasn't his fighting that bothered me. It was the fact that he had kept something from me for so long. We shared everything. We never had any secrets.

"I think you're overreacting," Whitley said as we stood in front of River's front door.

"I know. That's why we're here now. I'll apologize for being a brat and then we can move on with it," I said, knowing I hurt River by being silent and not talking to him all day.

"Good. Because I really wanna watch one of his fights. I heard underground fights are hot," she told me, and I shrugged, not really caring about that. All I cared about was for River not to be upset anymore because of how I acted.

I knocked on the door and pushed my hands into the front pockets of my jacket. It was getting cold, and I grabbed my winter jacket out of the closet already.

The door swung open, and Aiden stood there with glasses on and a book in his hand. "Hey, come in," he said with a smile, and I was hesitant at first. Whitley pushed me inside, and I prepared myself to face River.

"He's in his room," Aiden said, walking back to the living room where he had all his papers laid out on the coffee table. Whitley followed him and sat down on the couch next to him. I took off my jacket, hung it on the clothing rack, and walked over to River's bedroom. There was music playing inside, and I smiled as I recognized the song we added to our playlist a few years ago. Are You Gonna Be My Girl from Jet was playing, and I slowly opened the door to find River sitting on the bed with a book in his hand, his legs crossed at his ankles, and his body covered in only a pair of shorts.

His head turned, his eyes widening slightly and a smile spreading across his face. "Hey," he said with excitement in his voice. He knew I came to apologize, and I was still amazed by how he could turn my whole mood upside down with just one smile.

"Hi," I said quietly, closing the door behind me and walking up to his bed. He put the book onto the bed, and I glanced at it to read the title of it.

"Thinking fast and slow. How many times have you read this book in the past year?" I asked, recognizing that book from when we were younger. Dad bought it for his sixteenth birthday. That was when River started to get interested in psychology.

"Probably ten times," he replied, reaching for my hand, and pulling me onto the bed next to him. I smiled, letting him pull me into his arms and lay down with him.

I closed my eyes as he brushed his hand through my hair. "I'm sorry for ignoring you all day," I whispered, turning my head to look up at him. He grinned, pulling my leg over his lap, and kissing my forehead. "It's okay. To be honest...I was hoping it would last that long only for you to crawl back to me like you just did."

I laughed, shaking my head at him. His eye turned a purple color, but it was already starting to look less bad. "Have you been icing it?" I asked, reaching up to touch the side of his eye carefully.

He nodded. "It's healing," he told me. "Listen, Bow. I know I haven't been honest with you...but I didn't want to upset you while we were miles apart."

I understood, and I was slowly starting to accept his new hobby. "Do you get hurt a lot?" I asked, hoping his answer was no.

He shrugged, puckering his lips. "I'm good at it, and I know how to defend myself. But getting kicked or punched is part of it. It's impossible to not get hit during a fight, but I've never left the cage with more than a few bruises or a nosebleed."

I narrowed my eyes. "That sounds bad," I told him, and River chuckled.

"It's fine. The adrenaline makes the pain vanish in seconds," he explained. I studied his face for a while, then turned my head to put my head on his chest. "You don't expect me to come watch one of your fights, right? I'm not sure I'm into underground fighting."

"You'll only know if you come watch one. My next fight is in two weeks. You got plenty of time to come watch me train with Aiden."

"Does he fight too?" I asked.

"No. He boxed when he was in high school, but he just helps me train for the fights," River explained, and I nodded at his words.

"So...you won't tell Mom and Dad about it?"

He shook his head, caressing my leg with his fingers. "I don't think they'll react the way you did. They'd kill me. Especially Marilyn," he said, and I agreed with that. Mom was against any kind of violence. Even if it was staged on tv.

"Dad might be into it," I suggested, looking back up at him. I was kidding, of course. Dad played all tough and all, but he's the last man to ever support activities like that. Sure, he was in a motorcycle club, but he was, just like River always said, a big wuss sometimes. Dad cried more than Mom, which was very entertaining.

He let out a laugh. "I don't think so," he replied, then grabbed the book he had put down as I walked in. "Are you staying here tonight?" he asked, and I immediately nodded. I wasn't getting up from this bed anymore. It was too comfortable.

"Okay. Let me finish this chapter, then we'll watch a movie." He lifted the book in front of his face to continue reading while his other arm was wrapped around my back, keeping me close to him.

I closed my eyes, wrapping my arm around his stomach. This was another scenario I had many memories off. Us lying in bed together, cuddled up while he read some book about the human brain, with our playlist playing in the background.